Gunmen from al-Qaida’s north African branch have killed at least 16 people, including four Europeans, after they opened fire near several hotels in the Ivory Coast. The shooting came amid fears the jihadi threat is spreading in west Africa.

The government said security forces had killed the six assailants who launched attacks on three hotels in the popular seaside town of Grand-Bassam, a weekend retreat for residents of Abidjan, about 25 miles (40km) away.

Among the 16 dead were two soldiers, said the president, Alassane Ouattara. Local media reported gunmen had entered the L’Etoile du Sud (the Southern Star) hotel, seizing guests and staff on Sunday. A French foreign ministry spokesperson said one French national had been killed. A jihad monitoring group said al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb had claimed the attack.

Koba Maiga, a local trader of Malian origin, said he was at the mosque when he heard gunfire at about 1.30pm local time.

“We had the war here a few years ago so we know automatic weapons when we hear them. Initially no one in town thought much of it, though. On Sundays, there are sometimes clashes between the security forces and youths from Abidjan who come down to the coast and cause trouble on the beach,” he said.

Throughout the shooting he stayed in Bassam town centre, avoiding crossing the bridge that leads to the beach. However, he spoke to friends who were in the beach area when the attack happened.

“It was carnage. They shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is great]. They were getting people to shout those words and they killed anyone who didn’t. There were at least four of them. Three walked side-by-side along the beach and there was a fourth man who finished off any survivors.

“A lot of people ran out into the sea to escape. So apart from the people who died from gunshots there may be people who have drowned and have been swept out to sea. They were sub-Saharan Africans. Even though they wore balaclavas everyone saw they had brown hands. Now it is calm, the Ivorian army is here. I am at the roundabout before the bridge. The beach area has been sealed off.”

Dramane Kima, who showed a video purporting to show the bodies of victims to Reuters, said: “I saw seven dead that I filmed. There were four attackers. I was swimming when it started and I ran away.”

He also took pictures of grenades and ammunition clips that he believed had been left behind by the attackers. One witness said the gunmen shot a child who was kneeling down and begging for mercy. The witness said a woman was also shot. Special forces in the former French colony were on the scene, and the beach where the shooting began was evacuated.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said officials were urgently trying to establish whether any British nationals had been caught up in the incident.

The FCO advises against all but essential travel to the western regions of Dix-Huit Montagnes, Haut-Sassandra, Moyen-Cavally and Bas-Sassandra. It said of Sunday’s attacks: “On 13 March there have been reports of an armed attack at Grand-Bassam resort, near Abidjan. You should avoid the area if possible. If you are in the vicinity follow the instructions of the security authorities.

“There is a high threat from terrorism. You should be vigilant after recent attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners.”

Grand-Bassam, which has about 80,000 inhabitants, holds Unesco world heritage status.

Attacks in recent months on luxury hotels in the capitals of neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have killed dozens of people, leaving west African countries scrambling to boost security in the face of a growing jihadi threat.

Analysts have voiced fears that jihadi attacks could spread to countries such as Ivory Coast and Senegal, and the region’s US-led Flintlock military exercises that finished recently focused on the need to counter terrorist threats.

The attack took place nearly two months after Islamist fighters killed dozens of people in a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners in neighbouring Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.

The jihadist attack was the first of its kind in Ivory Coast – whose population is both Muslim and Christian – since militants began destabilising neighbouring Mali in 2012. A French military intervention that began in northern Mali in 2013 was extended to cover the entire Sahel region in 2014.

But Ivory Coast, where French peacekeepers were based from 2002 to 2014, has not been considered an anti-terror priority. Nevertheless, the country has seen limited Islamist activity since 2015 when groups linked to al-Qaida began lightning attacks in southern Mali, close to the Ivorian border.

In August 2015, there were reports in Mali that Ivorian authorities had arrested five suspected Islamic terrorist and seized firearms in the north of the country.

Those reports were later revised to suggest the suspected Islamists had been chased back into Mali. The group which has been most active in southern Mali, close to the Ivorian border, is the Massina Liberation Front, linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

The coordinated attacks in southern and central Mali – on a hotel housing UN staff at Sévaré in August 2015 and at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital, Bamako, in November 2015 – have been claimed by al-Qaida and al-Mourabitoun, erstwhile rivals who are currently working together.

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MISSION STATEMENT

It is our position that shariah law imposes second class status on women and is incompatible with the standards of liberal Western societies and the basic principles of human rights that include equality under the law and the protection of individual freedoms. The shariah code mandates the complete authority of men over women, including the control of their movement, education, marital options, clothing, bodies, place of residence and all other aspects of their existence. Further, it calls for the beating, punishment, and murder of women who don’t comply with shariah requirements.
In our efforts to stem the encroachment of shariah in the West, we are focusing on the following objectives:

Education of the American public about the inherent human rights violations and the attempt to undermine or replace U.S. law and American statutes with Islamic shariah

Alerting policy makers and legislators to potential human rights and equal rights violations and working toward the development of possible remedies and legal actions

Building coalitions with like-minded organizations to develop policy initiatives and interventions for victims of shariah.

IMPORTANT TERMS

Shariah: an all-encompassing and in-transmutable system of Islamic jurisprudence, found in the Koran and the Sunnah, that covers all aspect of life, including daily routines, hygiene, familial roles and responsibilities, social order and conduct, directives on relationships with Muslims and non-Muslims, religious obligations, financial dealings and many other facets of living.

Ird: the sexual purity of a woman that confers honor to her husband, family and community. Ird is based on the traditional standards of behavior set forth in the shariah code and includes subservience to male relatives, modest dress which could include veiling and the covering of the body, and restricted movement outside of the home. The loss of a woman’s ird confers shame upon her family and can result in ostracism by the community, economic damage, political consequences and the loss of self esteem.

Zina: the Koranic word for sexual relations outside of marriage. Under shariah law, Zina is punished by lashings, imprisonment or stoning to death.

FGM: female genital mutilation refers to the partial or complete removal of the female genitalia for religious and cultural reasons. It is practiced to preserve a female’s chastity and dampen her sexual desire. FGM is permitted in the Koran but required by the Shafi’i, one of the four schools of shariah law within Sunni Islam.

Honor Killing: a murder, usually of a female, committed to restore the social and political standing of a family or community when it is believed that the victim has violated traditional behavioral expectations. Such violations can include improper covering of the body, appearing in public without a male relative chaperone, talking to an unrelated male, or exhibiting independence in thought and action. An honor killing can also be based on hearsay or gossip that is perceived as damaging to a woman’s relatives.

Forced Marriage: a marriage that is conducted without the consent of one or both parties in which duress is a factor. Such duress can include violence or physical intimidation, psychological abuse, blackmailing, kidnapping, or threats of imprisonment or institutional confinement.

SLAVERY IN ISLAM

Islam permits the taking of slaves as “booty” or as a reward for waging jihad. Slavery became a Muslim tradition at the time that Mohammed moved to Medina and amassed sufficient power for the enslavement of non-Muslims.
Slavery is an accepted part of Islamic society and is never viewed in a negative way in the Koran, Sira or Hadith. In fact, it is a God-given right for Muslims to have slaves.
[6:7] Allah has given more of His gifts of material things to some rather than others. In the same manner, those who have more do not give an equal share to their slaves so that they would share equally. Would they then deny the favors of Allah.

Although Islam has sustained slavery for 1400 years, a Muslim may never be enslaved. Only non-believers or kafirs may be enslaved and may be eligible for freedom upon conversion to Islam at the discretion of the slave owner. Slavery is viewed as a moral good in Islam as it transforms a kafir into a believer.

Slaves have no means for legal action in Islam and their rights are based solely on the good will of their master. If a slave flees his master, this is view as a sin against Allah.

Slaves have few civil or legal rights.

The following are rules pertaining to slavery from the Shariah:

1) Muslim men may have sex with female slaves at any time and it is not possible to “rape” a slave.

2) Slaves have the same status as animals and it is permissible to whip them.

3) No Muslim can be put to death for murdering a slave.

4) A slave’s testimony is inadmissible in court.

5) Slaves can be forced to marry whomever their master chooses and may not choose their marriage mate.

6) Christians and Jews who do not pay the jizya or protection tax can be enslaved.

In his book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters, historian Robert Davis estimates that North African Muslims abducted and enslaved more than 1 million white Christian Europeans from the coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall between 1530 and 1780. Muslim slavers also seized people from Britain, Ireland, Iceland and even American seaman on ships in the Atlantic.

In a recent case of Muslim slavery in the United States, Sarah Khonaizan and her husband Homaidan Al-Turki were arrested for forced labor, sexual abuse and harboring an alien for enslaving an Indonesian housekeeper in their home in Colorado.
The couple reportedly brought the housekeeper to Colorado from Saudi Arabia to care for their five children and to cook and clean for the family. The Indonesian woman slept on the basement floor, was paid less than $2 per day and was the victim of rape.
Al-Turki and his defense attorney complained that they were being persecuted for their beliefs and stated, "The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."
Al-Turki received letters of support from the local Muslim community and from his academic colleagues at the University of Colorado.
This case continues to arouse strong feelings in Saudi Arabia where there is great sympathy and support for Al-Turki.
On March 26, 2008, a high level Saudi official brought up the case in a meeting with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. He urged Americans to review the case and mentioned the strong support for Al-Turki in Saudi Arabia.

RELIGION OF PEACE

IMPORTANT NOTE

Click on the title of each story in order to go to the original news story. Women Against Shariah does not claim copyright on any of the stories. This site should be considered a repository of news stories relating to Islamic matters. We aim to put all relevant news on this site so our viewers can locate these important stories in one place. Thank you.

ABOUT US

The mission of Women Against Shariah is to prevent and outlaw the imposition of shariah law in the United States for both Muslim and American women as either a parallel legal system or a replacement for existing laws. Additionally, we hope to empower women worldwide to resist shariah.